Formula One World Championship career

Status

Races

First race

Last race

Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (Tamil: குமார் ராம் நாராயண் கார்த்திகேயன்) (born 14 January 1977, in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian Formula One driver who last drove for the HRT F1 team in 2012. It was his second season with the team, having driven for them in 2011. He previously drove for Jordan, and has tested for Williams.

Karthikeyan was the very first Indian driver in Formula One. Karun Chandhok is the only other Indian driver to have raced in F1.

He then became a test driver for Williams, staying at the team throughout the 2006 and 2007 seasons. After this, he drove in A1GP, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the European Le Mans Series, and Superleague Formula.

In 2012, he signed for the HRT team again. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, he had an eventful race, reaching points-paying positions before a collision with Jenson Button pushed him back to the rear end of the field. Then, at the end of race, he collided with Sebastian Vettel while being lapped. Vettel was forced to pit and did not score. Karthikeyan received a 20-second post-race penalty for the incident. Karthikeyan secured his best result of the season in Monaco, finishing in 15th place. Later in the season, Karthikeyan was involved in a major accident with Nico Rosberg at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but neither driver was hurt. At the United States Grand Prix, Karthikeyan held up leader Vettel, and as a result Vettel was passed by Lewis Hamilton.

After HRT entered liquidation after the 2012 season, Karthikeyan raced in the Auto GP series in 2013, and since 2014 he currently races in the Japanese Super Formula series.